NEW YORK, NY.- Haunch of Venison presents four separate projects by artists Doug Argue, Bill Fontana, Alexandra Grant, and Les Rogers in New York from July 7th to August 28th. Each of the four artists will present an individual project in separate areas within the gallery’s 17,000 sq ft space. "The physical layout of the gallery lends itself to separate installations within the space so we invited these artists to create dynamic self-contained installations," said Director Emilio Steinberger, "Only one of the artists exhibiting, Bill Fontana, is currently represented by Haunch of Venison. We felt that this was a wonderful opportunity to step out of our comfort zone."
In the two south galleries Bill Fontana will exhibit Harmonic Bridge Cable Study 1, a sound sculpture which explores the musicality of sounds hidden within the London Millennium Foot Bridge, a structure that is alive with vibrations from footsteps, load and wind that are inaudible to the human ear. Using live-time vibration sensors called accelerometers, the artist acoustically mapped this hidden musical life in real time. Fontana is an American composer and artist who, over the past forty years, has developed an international reputation for his pioneering experiments in sound. Fontana uses sound as a sculptural medium to interact with and transform our perceptions of visual and architectural spaces. His work has been exhibited at countless international institutions including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Museum Ludwig, Cologne, The Tate Modern and The Tate Britain in London.
Minnesota born artist Doug Argue will be presenting one monumental painting, Foramen Magnum, measuring 13 x 8 feet, which will be installed in the front Atrium gallery. Foramen Magnum is a monumental abstract text painting in which the artist cuts letters from previous artist statements and randomly reassembled the letters into ephemeral columns. The Foramen Magnum is the hole at the base of the skull through which the nerves run that carry messages between the brain and body. Argue is known for making monumental paintings that deal mainly with infinite space and imagery, often inspired by Abstract Expressionism, math and science.
"Since my work is conceptual in nature the imagery is constantly changing; but the composition of space has remained similar" explained Argue. Argue’s work are included in numerous public collections, including the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis Institute of Art and the Frederic R. Weisman Foundation.
In Haunch of Venison’s northern gallery Les Rogers will exhibit a new body of work entitled Tangled Up In, a series of close-up nude paintings depicting a couple intimately entwined. The artist has photographed personal moments in his life that he then translates to oil on canvas, ensuring that "the figures act as an environment rather than objects." Rogers has shown extensively in the United States and Europe, most recently he had solo exhibitions with Leo Koenig in New York and Galerie Suzanne Tarasieve in Paris. Rogers is included in several high profile collections including the Susan & Michael Hort Collection, the Sir Elton John Collection and the collection of MoMA chairman Jerry Speyer.
Los Angeles based artist Alexandra Grant will be exhibiting a series of related paintings, sculptures and a neon sculpture entitled Yo Soy Lo Que Veo based on the book by Mexican novelist Jorge Volpi for her project Bodies. Collaborating with poet Michael Joyce, Grant uses language as both a starting point and as physical markers of image as text as both ontological and epistemological. In her mission statement Grant describes "Arches become legs, slivers of moons, rainbows that support the words - which laid out symmetrically resemble organs or eyes. I’ve pushed my conceptual language of image as text into a new material - oil paint - which oozes and accretes both density and meaning as words and arches are piled upon one another." Grant recently exhibited at The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angles and will have a solo exhibition at the Honor Fraser gallery in Los Angeles in Fall 2010.
